Putin calls for taking military-technical cooperation with BRICS to new level

We will develop cooperation with our partners from the BRICS Group and with Vietnam

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NOVO OGAREVO, October 17 (Itar-Tass) —— President Vladimir Putin called for raising military-technical cooperation with partner countries from the BRICS Group – Brazil, India, China, and South Africa – and also with Vietnam to a new level.

“We will develop cooperation with our partners from the BRICS Group and with Vietnam,” Putin said at a meeting of the Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation on Wednesday, October 17.

“Given the growing technological, industrial and scientific potential of these countries, military-technical cooperation with them can and should be raised to a qualitatively new level,” the president said.

He said he meant “deep industrial cooperation and joint research, creation of effective maintenance and after-sale service systems, and joint access to third countries”.

Putin recalled that “the BRICS countries have been dynamically gaining political, economic and technological momentum over the last several years, and showing high and stable growth rates. BRICS countries account for 43 percent of the world’s population and their combined GDP is makes up about one-fifth of the global”.

He believes that Russia has “built a constructive dialogue” with these countries, and it has been successfully coordinating actions with them on a wide range of global and regional issues.

India and China are “traditional key partners” of Russia in military-technical cooperation. “We see broad prospects for relations in this field with Brazil and South Africa,” he said.

Putin said Vietnam is “one of the trusted partners of Russia” with which “we are intensifying military-technical cooperation after some pause in the 1990s”.

As an example, Putin cited India with which “we do not limit ourselves to the supply of finished products only and give more and more attention to join R&D work and licensed production, including for supply to other countries”.

“Benefits are obvious: joint production allows us to reduce production costs, obtain and introduce new technologies, including dual purpose ones, and organise rational transfer of technologies from the defence indsutry to civilian sectors,” the president said.

At the same time, he emphasised the need to protect intellectual property rights. “Intellectual property rights of Russian manufacturers and internationally recognised brands should be effectively protected from unlawful reproduction,” Putin said.